Grindstone Entertainment Group has acquired all U.S. rights to Allan Ungar’s mixed martial arts thriller Tapped.

The Canadian action-thriller from Hackybox Pictures and Oriahsphere Entertainment will be released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment in 2014 as part of a distribution deal between the Vancouver-based mini-studio and Grindstone.

The U.S. deal was negotiated ahead of the AFM market by  XYZ films, which is handling North American sales of the Canadian action thriller.

The film, which was shot in London, Ontario, stars Cody Hackman and Michael Biehn, and tells the story of a disgruntled teenager, forced to do community service at a rundown karate school, who enters an MMA tournament to face the man who killed his parents.

Screen Media is handling international sales of Ungar’s film, excluding North America.

The film also stars Krzysztof Soszynski (Here Comes The Boom), Martin Kove (The Karate Kid), and UFC stars Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida.

Toronto-based Ungar is also set to direct for Hackybox Pictures the action film Gridlocked, which is set to start shooting in early 2014.